Driving apparatus, especially for a floating toy

ABSTRACT

The present driving apparatus is especially suitable for floating toys having a flexible skin. The driving apparatus imparts a wriggling or serpent like motion to the skin by means of a coiled member having a coiling extending at least over 180* . The skin is supported on flexible upper and lower longitudinal ribs and on cross ribs connected to said longitudinal ribs. The cross ribs have guide slots therein through which the coiled member extends. The coiled member is cranked by a motor, for example, a spring motor or an electric motor.

United States Patent [191 Goldbach [111 3,783,552 Jan. 8, 1974 DRIVINGAPPARATUS, ESPECIALLY FOR A FLOATING TOY [75] Inventor: Wend Goldbach,Muehlheim am Main, Germany [73] Assignee: Erika Goldbach, Muehlheim amMain, Germany [22] Filed: Sept. 28, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 292,969

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 30, 1972 .Germany P 21 48789.8

[52] US. Cl. 46/92 [51] Int. Cl A63]! 23/10 [58] Field of Search ..46/92[56] References Cited 7 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,648,935 8/1953 Nagel46/92 3,656,586 4/1972 Robson 46/92 2,645,883 7/1953 DeSalvo 46/923,380,184 4/1968 Fernandez 46/92 X Primary Examiner-Louis G. ManceneAssistant Examiner-D. L. Weinhold Attorney-Wolfgang G. Fasse ABSTRACTThe present driving apparatus is especially suitable for floating toyshaving a flexible skin. The driving apparatus imparts a wriggling orserpent like motion to the skin by means of a coiled member having acoiling extending at least over 180. The skin is supported on flexibleupper and lower longitudinal ribs and on cross ribs connected to saidlongitudinal ribs. The cross ribs have guide .slots therein throughwhich the coiled member extends. The coiled member is cranked by amotor, for example, a spring motor or an electric m0- tor.

8 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures FATENTEUJAR :3 1974 SHEET 2 [1F 2 DRIVINGAPPARATUS, ESPECIALLY FOR A FLOATING TOY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Thepresent invention relates to a driving apparatus, especially forfloating toys. More specifically, the present driving apparatus impartsa wriggling or serpent like movement to a floating toy having, forexample, the shape of a fish, or serpent or the like.

German Patent 98,999 granted to M. H. C. Shann et al, describes a methodand apparatus for driving large ships by means of a wriggling motion.For this purpose, the side walls of the ship body adjacent to the stemare flexible and these flexible side walls are moved in the shape of awave which runs through from fore to aft by means of an excenter driveshaft which extends longitudinally through the stem end of the ship orboat. The excenters of said drive shaft are arranged in such a mannerthat a line connecting the centersof said excenters forms a helix. Eachexcenter comprises two oppositely directed connecting rods which areoperatively connected to respectively opposite side wall portions of thestern portion of the ship. This arrangement of a plurality of excenterswould be much too'expensive for a toy.

Further a floating toy having the shape of a fish is described in U. S.Pat. No. 2,645,883 granted to A. de Salvo. In this toy amovement quitesimilar to a wriggling movement is used for a drive whereby the tailperforms a back and forth movement. For this purpose the tail end of thefish is made of elastic material and is formed as a conically taperingbody to the tip of which there is attached a tail fin having arelatively large surface. A crank drive is used to impart an oscillatingmovement to the conically tapering body. The tail fin follows thisoscillating movement with a phase shift. The efficiency of this type ofdrive mechanism is small because the movement is not a true wriggling orserpent like movement. Besides, the crank drive makes the toy relativelyexpensive.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing it is the aim of theinvention to achieve the following objects singly or in combination:

to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art, more specifically to providea drivefor a floating toy which will impart a truly wriggling movementto the toy;

to provide a floating toy which may be manufactured at relatively lowexpense and which will nevertheless be rather rugged and will requirehardly any maintenance;

to provide a simple drive capable of imparting a wriggling or serpentlike movement to the device tobe driven; and

to provide .a wriggling drive which could be used in any type ofwriggling toy such as a serpent, not necessarily a floating toy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention there is provided adrive apparatus especially for a floating toy wherein a helically coileddrive member, the coiling of which extends at least over 180, is rotatedor cranked by a drive motor to impart to the flexible skin of the toy awriggling or serpent like motion. For this purpose the toy skin issupported by longitudinal ribs and by cross ribs. The cross ribs arespaced'from each other along the length of the toy and the coiled drivemember cooperates with the cross ribs in effecting said wrigglingmotron.

BRIEF FIGURE DESCRIPTION In order that the invention may be clearlyunderstood, it will nowbe described, by way of example, with referenceto the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a somewhat simplified perspective view of an embodimentaccording to the invention and showing the frame structure of a fishtoy, whereby theskin of the fish is shown in dashed lines to facilitatethe showing of the drive with a drive member coiled through 1 FIG. 2shows a rear view of a modified embodiment wherein the drive member iscoiled through 270;

FIG. 3 is a side view of a further modified embodiment with a weight andfloatation means;

FIG. 4 shows a top view of the embodiment according to FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a side view of a portion of the outer skin of a furtherembodiment wherein the skin itself provides guide means for the coileddrive member. I

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS shaft 2 by means of a crank3. The elongated drivemember 4 is shaped as a helix which is coiled, forexample, through 180. Preferably the crank 3, the shaft 2 and the coileddrive member are formed as an integral structure from a single piece ofsufficiently stiff wire or other suitable material resulting 'in anespecially simple structure.

Incidentally the coiling of the drive member 4 extends through 270 inthe embodiment of FIG. 2 and through 360 in the embodiment according toFIGS. 3

and 4. y

In FIG. 1 the outer skin 5 of the fish toy is indicated by dashedlinesto simplify the showing'of the internal drive structure. 1 i

FIG. 1 further illustrates two longitudinal ribs, namely, an upperlongitudinal rib 6 and a lower longitudinal rib 7. The front ends of theribs are connected to the housing of the drive motor 1 and are made ofrelatively' soft spring material. These ribs 6 and 7 extendsubstantially in parallel to the longitudinal axis of the toy or ratherin parallel to the longitudinal axis of the helically shaped drivemember 4. Although only two longitudinal ribs 6, 7 are shown more may beused especially for toys of larger size.

A plurality of cross ribs 8, 9 and 10 are arranged to extend between thelongitudinal ribs 6, 7. The ends of the cross ribs are, for example,notched or forked at their ends, thus providing a simple butnevertheless rigid connection between the cross ribs and thelongitudinal ribs. The cross ribs further comprise guide means for thecoiled drive member 4. These guide means may, for example, be providedas longitudinal slots .11 in the cross ribs through which the coileddrive member 4 extends. The longitudinal ribs 6, 7 are connected to theskin 5 of the floating toy in such a manner that the skin will followthe motion perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the coiled drivemember 4.

The lower longitudinal rib 7 is preferably somewhat heavier than theupper longitudinal rib 6 whereby the center of gravity of the toy isadvantageously located for stabilizing the position of the toy in thewater. However, the spring characteristic of both longitudinal ribsshould be the same in order to assure a displacement of the cross ribssubstantially-in parallel to each other and in a direction extendingperpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the coiled drive member.

Referring to FIG. 2 there are shown in their starting position threecross ribs 12, 13 and 14 which, upon rotation of the coiled drive member4 in clockwise direction, will move in the directions indicated by therespective arrows and thus out of the illustrated starting position. Ifnow the drive member 4 keeps rotating the cross ribs 12, 13 and 14 willalternately be moved from left to right and from right to left wherebythe lateral displacement will correspond to the diameter of the drivemember 4. As a result, the cross sections through the floating toy bodywhere the cross ribs are located perform oscillating movements causingwriggling'mo tions of the toy body which correspond to the naturalmotions of locomotion of a fish. A slight, simultaneous torsionalmovement of the body of the floating toy is of no significance.

The quality or efficiency of the wriggling motion accomplished accordingto the invention increases with the number of the employed cross ribs.The actually applied drive power increases with the length of the coileddrive member 4, that is, with the number of the windings or turns whichthe member 4 has. Thus, the member 4 should have at least one half turnthrough 180. A coiling extending through more than 720 or more than twofull turns are normally not required.

In the embodiment according to FIGS. 3 and 4 the longitudinal ribs areformed by the outer skin 5 or these longitudinal ribs form an integralpart of the outer skin. Further, in this embodiment there are shownthree cross ribs 8, two cross ribs 9, and one cross rib or five crossribs altogether. The direction of motion of the outer skin is shown bythe arrows l8 and 19.

Pins 16 are connected to the housing 20 of the drive motor 1, preferablyin an adjustable or movable manner whereby a stabilization and anadditional drive may be accomplished. Preferably, a lower fin 21 is madeheavier than a top or back fin 23 whereby the bottom fin 21 may also actas a position stabilizing element. Further, means 22 such as air bubblesor foam cushions may be provided in the body of the toy preferably atthe top thereof for improving the floatability of the toy. The tail finis somewhat resilient and thus enhances the wriggling drive movement.

FIG. 5 illustrates a portion of an outer skin 5a of a further embodimentwherein the outer skin is provided with spaced notches or grooves 17which reduce the thickness of the skin at spaced intervals whereby thestrips 17a between the grooves are stiffer than the grooves themselves.These strips 17a are used as the cross ribs which cooperate with theaction of the coiled drive member.

It will be appreciated that instead of the shown fish body other shapesmay be used. Further the drive means may be located in the body in sucha manner that the wriggling motion is directed vertically rather thanhorizontally, for example, if a sea serpent and its motions are to besimulated.

Although the invention has been described with reference to specificexample embodiments, it is to be understood that it is intended to coverall modifications and equivalents within the scope of .the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for driving a toy, especially a floating toy with aserpent like motion, said toy having a longitudinal axis, comprisingdrive motor means including a drive shaft extending in the direction ofsaid longitudinal axis, a helically coiled rigid drive member having acoiling extending at least through means for drivingly connecting oneend of said coiled rigid drive member to said drive shaft, at least t'wolongitudinal ribs of flexible material aranged substantially in parallelto said longitudinal axis and diametrically opposite each other, atleast two rigid cross ribs spaced along said coiled member, means forconnecting said rigid cross ribs at their respective ends to saidflexible longitudinal ribs, elongatedguide apertures in said rigid crossribs for guiding said coiled member and flexible housing means attachedto said flexible longitudinal ribs and stretched over said rigid crossribs for enclosing a toy body, whereby substantially the entire toy bodyperforms a motion substantially conforming to a sine wave.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said flexible housingcomprises a flexible skin and wherein said flexible'longitudinal ribsare formed by somewhat stiffened but flexible members of said flexibleskin.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said flexible housingcomprises a flexible skin and wherein said rigid cross ribs are formedby stiflened members in said skin.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising weight meansattached to said toy at the lower side thereof.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising fin meansattached to the outside of said housing.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising floatationmeans located in said housing especially at the upper side thereof.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said flexiblelongitudinal ribs comprise an upper rib and a lower rib, said lower ribbeing heavier than said upper rib, said ribs having the same flexiblespring characteristic.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said flexiblelongitudinal ribs are connected at one end thereof to said drive motormeans.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No.3,783,552 Dat Januarv 8. 197M lnven fl Wend Go'l dhsmh It is certifiedthat error appears in the above-identified patent and that said LettersPatent are hereby corrected as shown below:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data September '30, 1971 Germany Inco'lnm n l, line ZO -after "180 insert a Signed and sealed this day ofApril 197R.

( SEAL) Attest:

C. MARSHALL DANN

1. An apparatus for driving a toy, especially a floating toy with aserpent like motion, said toy having a longitudinal axis, comprisingdrive motor means including a drive shaft extending in the direction ofsaid longitudinal axis, a helically coiled rigid drive member having acoiling extending at least through 180*, means for drivingly connectingone end of said coiled rigid drive member to said drive shaft, at leasttwo longitudinal ribs of flexible material aranged substantially inparallel to said longitudinal axis and diametrically opposite eachother, at least two rigid cross ribs spaced along said coiled member,means for connecting said rigid cross ribs at their respective ends tosaid flexible longitudinal ribs, elongated guide apertures in said rigidcross ribs for guiding said coiled member and flexible housing meansattached to said flexible longitudinal ribs and stretched over saidrigid cross ribs for enclosing a toy body, whereby substantially theentire toy body performs a motion substantially conforming to a sinewave.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said flexiblehousing comprises a flexible skin and wherein said flexible longitudinalribs are formed by somewhat stiffened but flexible members of saidflexible skin.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein saidflexible housing comprises a flexible skin and wherein said rigid crossribs are formed by stiffened members in said skin.
 4. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, further comprising weight means attached to saidtoy at the lower side thereof.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1,further comprising fin means attached to the outside of said housing. 6.The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising floatation meanslocated in said housing especially at the upper side thereof.
 7. Theapparatus according to claim 1, wherein said flexible longitudinal ribscomprise an upper rib and a lower rib, said lower rib being heavier thansaid upper rib, said ribs having the same flexible springcharacteristic.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein saidflexible longitudinal ribs are connected at one end thereof to saiddrive motor means.